WOBURN -- A superior court judge Monday overturned the murder conviction of a Lowell man who has spent three decades in prison after being convicted of a 1982 fatal fire in a Lowell tenement that killed eight people, including five children.

Middlesex Superior Court Judge Kathe Tuttman issued her 99-page decision, ordering a new trial for Victor Rosario after defense attorneys, during a hearing in March, argued there were serious flaws in Rosario's 1983 conviction that sent him to prison for life without parole.

The Middlesex District Attorney's office will review the decision and decide if it wants to appeal.

During a week-long hearing and a parade of witnesses, defense attorneys Lisa Kavanaugh and Andrea Petersen argued that Rosario, 57, who became an ordained Baptist minister while serving a life sentence for murder, is the victim of a "perfect storm of injustice."

"There is no denying that the evidence the court heard is completely different than what the (1983 trial) jury heard," Kavanaugh said during the hearing.

Lowell police arrested Rosario and two other people 48 hours after the 1 a.m., five-alarm blaze at 32-36 Decatur St., a tenement in the Acre section of the city. He was arrested because a witness identified him as the man he saw throw something into the building.

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After about 6 1/2 hours of police questioning and an emotional outburst in which Rosario claimed to be "the son of God," he confessed that he and two friends threw Molotov cocktails into the building as revenge for a botched drug deal.

But an investigation by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting revealed a number of flaws with the police investigation, the evidence and the prosecution, prompting Rosario's defense team to request a hearing for a new trial.

Specifically, the findings indicated:

* Lowell police quickly determined it was arson, but since the science of fire-scene investigations has changed since then, the burn patterns investigators believed was evidence of arson may not be.

* No accelerant was found, casting doubt on the Molotov-cocktail theory of what started the fire.

* The Spanish-speaking translator who helped police question Rosario now says Rosario was delusional during questioning and did not understand when he signed his confession.

* Rosario's court-appointed defense attorney was distracted by his own legal problems -- a motor-vehicle-homicide charge -- and should have withdrawn from the case.

But lead Lowell investigator Harold Waterhouse, who established Lowell's arson squad in 1975 and retired in 1989, told The Sun in an earlier interview that he stood by his results.

He said the lack of an accelerant is not unusual in a major fire because it burns off.

In his confession, Rosario told police that he watched as brothers Felix and Edgardo Garcia filled 12-ounce Miller beer bottles with flammable liquid and rags in the basement of 38 Branch St. where Rosario and Felix Garcia lived. The trio spent the day drinking, then headed to Decatur Street to seek revenge for a botched drug deal.

All three were arrested on eight counts of murder and one count of arson on March 8, 1982, but charges against the two brothers were dropped when Rosario refused to testify against them at a probable-cause hearing.

The brothers returned to Puerto Rico and have since died.

Kavanaugh said, Rosario, then a chronic drinker, had "an emotional outburst with religious references," while giving police a statement, a sign that Rosario was delusional during the police interrogation. During his outburst, Rosario said, "I am the son of God. I am Jesus Christ."

Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Martin Kelly testified, contrary to defense experts, that Rosario's display was an "emotional outburst" that was the result of a mental illness or mental disease, nor was it due to a psychotic depression, a schizophrenic episode or alcohol withdrawal.

During her cross-examination, Kavanaugh noted that Kelly agreed that Rosario was upset and overwhelmed, and might have been "vulnerable" to accepting the investigators' theory of the crime.

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